Thursday, November 7, 2024

Dear Editor, 

Even up to today, many Belizeans cannot countenance or simply refuse to accept the fact that our ancestors were never enslaved.

The plight of the Garifuna people was atrocious when they were in contact with the Europeans in St. Vincent. The Carib and Arawak who occupied these islands were considered fearless warriors by the slave masters, in particular the British.

These Africans were brought across the Atlantic Ocean with the intention of becoming slaves. Once the Africans and Caribs merged after the shipwreck, the British knew that they would have a major problem containing these people.

The treatment of the Garifuna people by the Europeans was worse than their enslaved counterparts. The reason was that our ancestors resisted slavery. This incredible mix of Africans, Caribs, and Arawaks fought off their oppressors with everything they had, including their lives. During this time, many of the runaway slaves or maroons from the West Indies, as the region was referred to back then, who were lucky to escape the claws of their oppressors, made their way to St. Vincent for refuge.

The journey from St. Vincent to the coast of Central America was an attempt at genocide by the British; they intended to eliminate our culture from the face of the earth. Hence, we are considered to be an indigenous group in this region. If history serves us right, the Garinagu would then be the only people of African descent in the Western Hemisphere that were never enslaved. Only the indigenous people of this part of the world were never slaves. The Garifuna people also fall under that category.

There is no doubt that there will be those in high and low places who are working overtime to debunk this reality. History has always been a controversial and boring subject. It’s much easier to gravitate to all the superficial things in this world. But if you don’t know thyself and where you are from, how can you free your mind?

Respectfully,
J Alvarez